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On 1 November, some key provisions of the Lisbon Treaty enter into force: namely, the root-and-branch reform of the voting weights of member states in the Council of Ministers. Their impact will be quite dramatic.

EU governments last week agreed three modest targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions, increase the share of renewable energy and improve energy efficiency by 2030. Environmental groups said the goals would not do enough to cut Europe’s dependence on fossil fuels and put it on track to meet its own 2050 climate pledges.

The European Parliament voted last week to approve a college of commissioners with much to prove in terms of its commitment to environmentally-sustainable policies and effective measures to fight climate change. The Commission was formally accepted by the European Council on Friday morning.

The Commission finally published rules to implement the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD) last month, but environmental campaigners say they will fail to discourage oil companies from using and investing in higher-polluting oil such as tar sands and coal-to-liquid.

Hungarian NGOs are calling on the Commission to enforce its own regulations, after police raided the offices of a foundation coordinating the distribution of money from western Europe to Hungarian NGOs. T&E’s member organisation the Clean Air Action Group is one of the NGOs that have suffered from a climate that is making it increasingly difficult for civil-society groups to operate in Hungary.

The fossil fuel sector is an industry ‘unprepared’ for a low-carbon economy and thus a risk to investors. That’s the conclusion of a new report into 81 coal, oil and gas companies by the lobby group Carbon Tracker.

Ireland’s car taxation on carbon dioxide emissions has caused ‘a profound change’ in the new car fleet, according to data published by the country’s sustainable energy authority, SEAI. However, the positive news is tempered by further evidence of the widening gap between car test results for CO2 emissions and their real-world performance.

Spain has announced a €27 billion investment in 43 greenhouse gas reduction measures designed to meet its EU burden sharing obligations and create 45,000 jobs per year. But environmental groups say the proposals do not go far enough.